Just saw Kante touch the ball in the final 15 seconds. And I thought to myself I can't really remember him doing much of that before. Maybe that was key to our being in this match all the way through it. Anyway we're off to PK's. Oh joy.
Whoa... looks like eight stitches, maybe more, for Per. That find affect the beginning of the season for him. Would make it a little bit hard to head the ball?
Ox scores. Can we get one more? Giroud to answer this. And I can't post yet. Can he score it? Yes. He. Can.
Honestly, when it went to penalties I didn't expect us to pull it out. Glad to go into the season on a positive note.
It's based off his entire career and a reasonable assumption that he will find it more difficult to score in the EPL than in France.
Anyways, losing this game would have had a much more negative impact than winning has a positive impact. So good thing for that. But we still need another 1-2 players and to keep both Ozil and Sanchez to have a very good shot at securing top 4. Let's see what else we do this window.
I really thought Xhaka had a fantastic match. Controlled midfield pretty well, had that long-range shot Courtois had to full stretch, and tying assist to Sead. Most important, he kept a pretty cool head throughout the game. Nice piece of sportsmanship helping Pedro's cramp before he got sent off, too.
Based on his entire career? He scored 75 league goals in his last three seasons at Lyon. Certainly there will be a period of adjustment, but you may be overrating EPL defenses. In his best season at Montpellier, Giroud averaged a goal every 152.5 minutes. He has equaled or bettered that number in each of the last three EPL seasons, averaging a goal every 133, 152, and 100 minutes, respectively.
pfffffft. he's an arsenal player. that means he's automagically shit. shouldn't you know that by now?
If only Wenger would buy a decent 8 Arsenal now have an assortment of odds and ends midfielders who don't really fit with any obvious plan and with ad injury histories.
agreed. Ramsey is the best eight in the squad but he really only seems fully functional in a 3 man mid with say xhaka and elneny/coquelin, which lessens the quality of overall play. xhaka, elneny, coquelin, ramsey, wilshire, santi - out of these, only 4 are viable. Wilshire and Santi are exceedingly injury prone. Elneny and Coquelin aren't good enough to start and Ramsey I explained. I'd try to move Santi and Wilshire both and bring a good passing 8. Definitely the biggest problem area in the squad considering a strong midfield lets teams get away with a lot of tactical problems.
Did they ever play a three man midfield with Ramsey, Xhaka, and Elneny/Coq? I don't remember a game like that. When they played a 4-2-3-1, Ozil was generally the AM. When they went to a 3-4-3, Ramsey and Xhaka were the CMs with Ozil or Sanchez dropping into midfield to link up play, as needed. And in case you didn't notice Xhaka and Ramsey were pretty good in those roles after Arsene switched to a 3-4-3. If we could guarantee that Ramsey would stay healthy and that Xhaka wouldn't have to serve any red card or accumulated yellow card suspensions, I'm comfortable with the pairing. However, since we know that neither is likely to occur, I would like to see another 8, who can also play the 6, so he could pair with either Ramsey or Xhaka.